Method of treating metal wheels



Jan. 30, 1940. l.. E. ENDSLEY METHOD OF TREATING METAL WHEELS Filed Jan. lll, 1958 E Shee'is--Shse' INV `Fam. 30, 1940.

L.. E. ENDSLEY METHOD OF TREATING METAL WHEELS 2 sheets-sheet 2 Filed Jan. 14, 1938 INVENTOR a ww .Patented 1m30, 1940 y Y 2,188,569

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD F TREATING METAL WHEELS una E. Enasley', Pittsburgh, Pa., signor u Edgewater Steel Company, Oakmont, Paga corporation of Pennsylvania Application January-14, 193s, serial No. 184,984 4 Claims. (Cl. 148-.-10)

My invention relates to a method of treating When differences of temperature are presentin metal wheels and similarly shaped articles, and the hub and the rim, the forces imposed on the is especially useful in the treatment of railway plate are not uniform from side to side, but one car Wheels and the like, which have hub and side or surface of the plate will be in tension 5 rim portions connected by relatively thin plate and the other side in compression. This difl portions or webs. ference in stresses is produced by the moment The invention has for its object the provision brought about because the junction between the of a method for elimination or counteractlon of hub and the plate is in a different radial plane stresses which are created through shrinkage than the junction between the rim and the plate,

of the wheel parts `during cooling. so that when the hub cools oi last it produces l0 One manner of forming forged wheels involves high tensile stresses at the oppositely disposed the steps of piercing a blank at approximately points of juncture of the plate with the hub and its central portion and then rolling or otherwise the rim, respectively. This surface tension in forging 'the blank, to form the hub, plate and heat treated wheels mentione d above goes in some rim portions above referred to. The hub portion wheels to 60,000 lbs., or equal to the elastic limit. 15 of the Wheel will cool much more slowly than The treatment as hereindescribed can reduce the rim portion thereof, with the result that the these stresses near the surface to practically zero, rim portion will contract in radial directions or if desired, can put these two points of high relative to the hub portion, thereby placing the tension, as manufactured, over into a compresplate portion of the wheel under compression, sion stress, if sniiicient heat is put in the rim. 20 and tending to forge the plate into thehub My invention contemplates the application of which is still very hot. During this earlier stage, a radially-directed expansion force to the rims the plate and the rim become much cooler than and plates of either cast or forged wheels, to such the hub which, by reason of being much hotter a degree as will increase the tensional forces than other points of the wheel, continues to createdinthe plate portion of the wheels through 26 shrink and develops a high tension radially in the shinkage of the hubs during cooling. This force plate. will be of such degree as will overstrain the In a standard car wheel, of approximately 33 plates somewhat above their elastic limits. To in. diameter, with a 51/2 inch tread and 3 inch this end, I heat the rims to a temperature which rim thickness, the shrinkage of the hub will will expand them to such an extent as to create 30 place thev plate under very great stresses which the overstrain referred to. Cooling of the rims may be to the elastic limit of the metal and will relieve this stretching force on the plates. perhaps to the extent of 40,000 lbs-to 60,000 lbs. with the result that the plate and the rim will per square inch. contract or shrink toward the center of the wheel.

35 Car wheels have also been manufactured and The plate having been stretched beyond its elas- 35 heat-treated by bringing the whole wheel up to tic limit in a radially outward direction, the metal the-desired temperature and quickly cooling the thereof will be under much less strain than tread surface by either immersing in water or previous to the stretching operation. It is posspraying jets of water from a large number of sible to heat the rim to such an extent that small orifices or nozzles against the tread surface. shrinkage thereof will actually place the plate 4u This quick cooling of the tread hardens it and under compression, but ordinarily I will heat the gives a longer life to the wearing surface, but' rim only to about 300 F. above room temperacauses the rim portion of the wheel to contract ture. during the quick cooling, and as the hub and In treating a wheel of the dimension heretoplate are still hot, this contraction forges the fore referred to, the rim will be heated to an 45 plate into the hub, so thatY when the hub and extent suflicient to stretch the plate and give plate do cool olf, the shrinkage due to cooling it apermanent set without overstraining the rim. causes a high tension in the plate of the wheel so that the rim will return to approximately its in the same manner as if the wheel had been original position, with less maximum stress in forged or rolled and thereafter not heat-treated. the rim land the plate. 50

In many cases the railways car wheels are Wheels treatedinthis manner have the stresses formedv with their web or plate portions dished in the Y)lates thereof relieved to such an extent or inclined relative to the rim and hub, as shown that there is much less danger of fracture. such in the accompanying drawings, instead of being as occasionally occurs in even those car wheels directly radial or perpendicular to the axis. manufactured according to the various present 5s approved practices. Inrecent years some of the train wrecks have been attributed to the breaking of car wheels as a result of unrelieved stresses of apparatus for heating wheel rims; Fig. 2 is a view thereof taken on the line II-lI of Fig. 1;-

Fig. 3 is an end view partly in section; Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing the electrical connections and circuits for the apparatus of Fig. 1, and Fig 5 shows another manner in which wheel rims may be heated.

Referring first to IEIlgs.` 1, 2" and 3, base frame members 3 serve as supports for telescopicallyarranged pedestal or post sections 4 and 5 that support a table or platform 6 for movement to vertically adjusted positions, as hereinafter described. Mounted on the table 6 are a series of blocks or plates 1 which are radially movable in slideways on the table and are held in adjusted positions by set screws 8, so that these blocks can be properly positioned with respect to wheels of different diameters. Each of the plates carries an electro-magnet 9 comprising a. C-shape core I0 and an energizing coil II, the upper leg or pole I2 of the core being hinged to the back of the core, so that it can be swung into and out of position above the rim or tread `I3 of a car wheel, the plate or web of the wheel being indicated by the numeral I4 and the hub thereof by the numeral I5.

A bearing block I6 is supported on beams I1 and I8, that are in turn carried by the base frame 3. 4A shaft 20 is journalled in the bearing block I6 and carries a seating block 2| which is keyedv to the shaft at 22', for supporting the car wheels. Near its upper end, the shaft has a. slot 23 for the reception of a wedge key 24 which, through the medium of a washer 25, will force the hub I5 of the wheel firmly against a friction member 26of rubber or thelike, upon an upper face of the seating member 2|, so that the wheel will be irmly held thereon against slippage and will turn with the shaft when the shaft is rotated. A ller sleeve or thimble 21 on the shaft 20 receives the bore of the wheel and serves to prevent radial shifting of the wheel.

It will be seen that a wheel to be treated can readily be clamped to the shaft for rotation therewith, with the rim of the wheel positioned between the poles ofthe electro-magnets 9. Since wheels of the same type vary vslightly in their dimensions between the side face of the rim and the side face of the hub on which the wheel is supported, the table is shifted vertically relative to the seating member 2l so that the poles of the electro-magnets will'be positioned to receive the rim centrally therebetween with small air gaps between the poles and rim I3.

The table 6 is raised and lowered by means of a jack device 28 which may be a hydraulic jack of any well-known form. The jack 28 has its plunger member secured to a bar 29, A pair of lever arms 30 are pivotally connected at their outer ends to the ends of the bar 29 and at their inner ends are pivotally connected to lugs 3| that are suitably secured to the beams I1 and I8.

A .pair of links 32 are provided for eachlever 30 and are pivotally connected at their ends, respectively, to levers 30 and lug blocks 33 secured to the under side of the table v that when pressure is admitted. to the jack 28 theadjacent sidesof the 1 6. It will be seen i through pipe u, the bar ze' wm be moved upwardly and, through the levers 30 and links 22, willl raise the table 8 the posts l on the under side of the table serving'to guide the table. The pressure in the jack 2l maintains Athe table in its adjusted position until thepre'ssure is released.` Thus, the table can `be shifted vertically relative to the vseating block 2|. so as to bring the polesof electro-magnets 0 into position'to receive the rims of car wheels therebetween.

The shaft 20 at its lower end is suitably journailed in a bearing block I6 and carries a bevel gear 31 which is keyed thereto. The gear'wheel 31 and the shaft 20 are driven from a motor 3l through a pinion 29, a gear wheel 40, a shaft 4| and a bevel pinion' 42. The shaft 20 can suitably be rotated at about 330 R. P. M.

-The rim of the wheel is caused to rotate in the magnetic field of each of the magnets 9 when the coils Il. thereof are energizedpreferably from a D. C. source, the total iield strength ofv these magnets being oi such intensity that with the wheel rotating at about 330 revolutions per minute, heating currents of such value will be produced in the rim as will cause the rim to be increased in temperature approximately 300 F., within one or two minutes, The rim is heated throughout its entire cross-sectional area substantially simultaneously by these electrical currents in the rim, all parts of the rim being heated to substantially a uniform temperature. In car wheels of certain standard sizes, this would represent about 5,000 to 6,000 B. t. u. During rotation of the wheel the table and the electro-magnets are held stationary by the table posts 5.

Referring to Fig. 4, electrical current for th coils of the magnets is supplied from a D. C. line 5I, through knife-switch |52 and conductors 53.A Electrical energy for the driving motor I8 is supplied from a line 43, through a circuit breaker switch 44 and conductors 45. A manually-controlled switch 46 is provided for closing the circuit through a solenoid 41, which will cause the switch 44fto be moved to the closed position shown. 'I'he switch 52 is closed to provide the magnetic fields after the motor has been set into 'operation and the shaft 20 brought up to its running speed.

In order to increase the effectiveness of the heating currents induced in the rim, I preferably employ an even number of electro-magnets@ and arrange them so that each magnet is of opposite polarity with respect to the polarity of adjacent magnets. That is, during rotation of the wheel, a point on the rim passes successively through flux lines moving in opposite directions, since the north and south poles of one magnet are arranged oppositely to the north and south poles of the ad- Aliacent magnets.

Since the value of the currents induced inthe rim of the wheel is dependent upon rim speed and magnetic field strength, and the time required to heat the rim is dependent upon the value of the induced currents, the time required to vheat the rim can be varied by changing the rimA speed, the field strength or by utilizing a greater or lesser number of electro-magnets. However, the power required to effect a given increase in the temperature of the rim will be equal to the power expended in the'motor 38, less the mechanical and electrical losses of the'apparatus employed. Thus, the current supplied to the motor 38 'aiords an accurate index to the rise in rim temperature for a given size wheel, so that the heating of wheels of any size caneasily `be scribed, since such' currents are effective to raise controlled by controlling the amount of energy supplied to the motor 38.

Thus, in order to insure against underheating or overheating of the wheel rim, I provide means,

such as a watt-meter relay 48, of any well-known.

suitable form, for automatically effecting opening of the switch 44. This meter relay is connected to the conductors 45. and when a predetermined number of watts have been expended by the motor 38 to rotate the Wheel, switch contacts 49 of such relay will close, resulting in energization of a solenoid 50 which will move the switch Il to open position.

The heating of the wheel rim effects expansion thereof and consequently creates radial stress suiiicient to overstrain the plate I4 of the Wheel,

as heretofore explained. The rim of the wheel can be permitted tol cool in the air and upon cooling thereof,v the strain on the plate portion -M of the wheel will be removed. The rotation ci' the wheel rim in a series of magnetic fields distributed in an annular path, results in rapid and quite uniform heating thereof. i

In Fig. 5, I show a wheel 55 whose rim is heated by electric current induced therein by coils 56 and 51, which are disposed at opposite sides of the rim of the wheel and are connected to a source of high frequency C. by conductors 58; the current induced in the rim causing rapid increase in the temperature of the rim portion, the wheel preferably being rotated during heating of the rim to, eiect substantially uniform heating at all points around the rim.

Within a suitable housing 59, I provide control apparatus for automatically controlling *how of electric energy through the conductors 5B in the same manner that current flow through the conductors 45 of Fig. 4 is controlled, the, control apparatus within the housing 59 comprising al switch and associatexii conkol mechanism whichl corresponds to' the sw ch M and the control mechanism therefor.' '-I'lg. 4. After a predetermined quantity of 'electrical enrgy has been supplied to the coils fand 51, the control apparatus operates to automatically interrupt current flow through the conductors 58, thus effecting proper heatingofthe rim of the Wheel.

The advantage of rapidly heating the .rim is to effect the desired difference in temperature as between the rim and the hub portion very quickly, so that no heat will be transmitted hack into the plate and hub and thus require a greater rim temperature for doing the Work. difference temperature lsquickly established `Without material heat losses when the rim is heated by electrical currents induced therein, above dethe temperature simultaneously at all points throughout the cross sectional area of the rim. Thus, the rim is heated interiorly at the same time that it is heated exteriorly, the heating rate being substantially uniform at all parts of the rim so that no undesirable stresses are set up in the rim by thus heating the same.

I claim asA my invention:

1. The method of relieving stresses in a iinished wheel .that has a hub portion, a rim portion and a plate portion, which comprises heating the rim by induced electrical currents to a temperature'below any temperature at which the rim would be appreciably softened, but to such degree in excess of the temperature of the plate that it will expand suillciently to strain the plate portion beyond its elastic limit, and thereupon interrupting the application of heat and permitting the rim to become cooled'.

2. The method of relieving stresses in a finishedwheel that has a hub portion, a rim portion and a plate portion, which comprises heating the rim by rotating it through a magnetic field to a.,

which comprises hardening therim by quenching .it while in a heated condition, thereafter relieving stresses in the wheel by electrically heating the rim portion thereof to a temperature below any temperature at which the rim Wouldbe appreciably softened, but to such degree in excess of the temperature of the plate that it will expand suniciently to strain the plate portion beyond its elastic limit, and thereupon interrupting the application of heat and permitting the rim to become cooled.

4. The method of relieving stresses in a finished wheel which has a hub portion, a rim portion and a plate portion, which comprises electrically heating the rim to a temperature approximately 300 F. in' excess of the temperature of the plate portion, but below any temperature at which the rim would become appreciably softened, and thereupon interrupting the application of heat and permitting the rim to become cooled.

IQUIB E. ENDSLEY. 

